throughout the campaign, APWLD and its partners will be calling for -
derailment of WTO 6TH Ministerial Meeting
WTO and TNCs out of food and agriculture
Womens Right to food and land
protection and promotion of rights of women to defend their rights to food and land
Food sovereignty as an alternative to corporate globalisation
Asian Climate Action Day Chiang Mai • Copenhagen Climate Justice Now!
(December 9, 2009, Chiang Mai, Thailand)
NEWSRELEASE
Climate negotiators in Copenhagen, ‘Be guided by climate justice, community rights and voices of women and other marginalised groups’, called the Climate Justice Now! bicycle rally in Chiang Mai
09 December 2009, Chiang Mai, Thailand - All the way from Copenhagen, Santa Claus joined Buddhist monks with the people of Chiang Mai for a bicycle rally on December 9, 2009, and delivered not toys, but the people’s messages and demands for climate justice, particularly lesser greenhouse gas emissions and accountability from first world countries.
The march of more than 30 cyclists and 25 rickshaws or samlor went through the town carrying messages from people in Chiang Mai. The march started from the Indian consulate to the British and the US consulates delivering a “gift”, a package of people’s statements to each consulate.
In front of the US consulate speakers from Buddhist monks, indigenous peoples in Thailand, Thai general citizen, US citizen as well as Santa voiced common but differentiated experiences in and demands to address climate change which the climate negotiators should be guided by. A skit by Thai youth group represented the TNCs silencing people and exploiting marginalised groups by money and power, which were in the end made committed to sustainable society by people. “Climate Justice Now!” and “Phur Lok Yen Thi Pen Tham!” in Thai were chanted by all participants particularly toward the US, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
The consulates of France, China and Japan were also visited by the group. The vice-consul of Japan promised that he would forward the all statements to Tokyo.
‘The US has to pay its climate debt’, said Russell Kirk Hollis, a US citizen in Chiang Mai. A legally binding agreement with a target of drastic emission cuts by the first world countries has to be reached in Copenhagen before it is too late.
Empowering Marginalised Women to Address Climate Change
Research Planning Workshop
(October 4, Bangkok)
Participants from India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand shared their initial observations and experiences of the negative impact of climate change within their communities.
Indrani has been engaged in the post-harvest fisheries by drying fish for sale. Fish catches have been decreasing and the region has seen a marked decrease particularly in small fish. In 2000, she was able to sell 5-10 kg of dry fish a week but this has been decreasing since 2004 to on average 1 kg per week. She sometimes does not have enough fish for her family consumption. Catches of big fish such as sharks has also decreased. Indrani and her husband have had to take on part-time jobs in the evening after fishing to subsides their income as a result. She works at a shoe factory.
Harvest season has also changed. Two seasons, March - May and August – November used to be the high harvest months of year, but the high seasons are no longer identifiable. Unexpected rain and typhoons make fishing more difficult and risky for fishers. (Right: Bulathsinhalage Indrani Hamine from Sri Lanka at the workshop)
Her elder daughter had to stop her schooling and take on paid employment to assist the family. She now works at a garment factory. Her earnings support her two brothers. Indrani is concerned that she will note be able to take care of her three children as much as she used to because she and her husband have to go to their part-time jobs in the evening. She is afraid the worsening situation is a result of climate change.
Tabasum presented the cases in lower Sindh, Pakistan. Changes in weather patters have been observed by the local people including higher temperature, extreme weather such as storms and unseasonable, excessive precipitation and rise of the sea level. These changes have affected the quality of water and crop harvests, which has resulted in an increasing workload for women.
More women are looking for jobs by migrating both in rural areas engaging in seasonal farm work and in urban areas where little is known of how these migrant women are surviving. Tabasum highlighted that these migrant women live insecure without proper housing and community support and suffer from low standard of living, which make them further vulnerable to violence and abuse. (Left: Indrani and Tabasum at the workshop)
Other Presentations
Impact of climate change on rural and indigenous women by Innabuyog-CWEARC (PowerPoint)
Indigenous Women, Livelihoods and Climate Change by Dr. Govind Kelkar (UNIFEM South Asia Office) (PowerPoint)
Developments in the Responses to Climate Change by PACC-PCMC (PowerPoint)
Impacts of Climate Change on Rural Communities in Sindh, Pakistan by Roots for Equity (PowerPoint)
Impacts of Climate Change on Grassroots Women in India (PowerPoint, Word)
Women’s Challenges in facing the Impact of Climate Change in Indonesia by Solidaritas Perempuan (PowerPoint)
Rural and Indigenous Women’s Statement
on Climate Change
A Submission to the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
“We, rural and indigenous women from Asia, the Pacific and other parts of the world, face enormous threats and damage to our lives and rights as a consequence of climate change including the unbridled manner by which measures are being proposed and undertaken to adapt to and mitigate this phenomenon and its impacts. As women farmers, fisherfolk, herders, farm workers, indigenous food producers and natural resource managers, we rely heavily on primary resources, which are being negatively affected and destroyed by climate change.” (Read more and see the signatories)
NEWSRELEASE
“Climate Justice, Gender Justice, now!”
01 October 2009, Bangkok Thailand - Chanting “Climate Justice, Gender Justice, now!”, women and men activists from Asia-Pacific gathered in front of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) building despite the rains for the Asian Women’s Quilt on Climate Change while the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting was ongoing inside the building.
Patches of colorful images and symbols from Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, Thailand and the Philippines were sewn together to form quilts and displayed this morning outside the UN ESCAP building. The quilts articulated the impacts and effects of climate change to women’s already increased vulnerability and multiple burden.
“Rural and indigenous women have the least carbon prints yet they bear the biggest brunt of the effects of climate change,” Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and AMIHAN representative Tess Vistro said. “We call on the governments to give priority to the protection of rural and indigenous women’s livelihoods and sources of sustenance and food security,” she added.
“Women and children, especially marginalized sectors such as rural and poor peoples are most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events, climate-related natural disasters, rising sea levels, rise of climate-sensitive diseases and the like,” the People’s Action on Climate Watch statement said.
The group also asked for deep and drastic cuts on greenhouse gas emissions particularly of the United States, the European Union and Japan. Focus on the negotiations should be on protecting the people's needs and welfare, especially women’s human rights, reducing existing vulnerabilities from the local to the regional levels, and reviewing and repealing policies, frameworks and programmes which contribute to the cumulative effect of reducing people's and women’s capacity to adapt to climate change impacts.
The quilt project was spearheaded by the Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils), Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF) of Thailand, Philippine Climate Watch Alliance (PCWA) and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) with the help of Artist Project Earth-United Kingdom.
People’s Action for Climate Change (PACC) c/o Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils) - cecphils@gmail.com
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
Rural and Indigenous Women Task Force
Women and Environment Task Force
Chiang Mai, Thailand www.apwld.org
For more contribution of photos and thoughts of rural women for the World Rural Women’s Day, please send them to riwwenpo@apwld.org
Thailand to Sri Lanka
29 Oct – 4 Nov 2008
Sri Lanka to Thailand
8 – 14 October 2008 Read more
Mining and Women in Asia: Experiences of Women Protecting their Communities and Human Rights Against Corporate Mining is a product of the Food Over Gold campaign launched in 2005 as part of APWLD’s food sovereignty programme. read more
Anti Terror Laws and It's Impact on Rural Women in Asia
Especially for rural women, there have been widespread concerns that the anti-terror laws in their countries further marginalise them from accessing natural resources, restrict their mobility, and their organising for empowerment. The RIW TF then decided to embark on a research to study the impacts on anti-terror laws on rural and indigenous women in the taskforce member’s countries, namely, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, India, and Thailand. The project was conceptualised in 2003 and commenced in 2004.
In 2005, APWLD through its two programmes, Women and Environment (WEN) and Rural and Indigenous Women (RIW) launched its campaign Don’t Globalize Hunger! Assert Women’s Right to Food Sovereignty. Central to this campaign is the awareness-raising and mobilising women, particularly those from the national and grassroots organisation. Regional forums and support to national forums in several countries within the region brought together women activists and peasant women to discuss the various political forces which cause our hunger and poverty. readmore
Fact Finding mission reports
APWLD STatement for World Rural Women's Day and World Foodless Day: Rural and Indigenous Women Assert Food Sovereignty! World Rural Women’s Day, 15th October, World “Foodless” Day, 16th October 2008 [read more]
Gold does not always glitter for women: Asia Study Session on Women and Mining [read more]
Central Asia Food Sovereignty Workshop [read more]
APWLD members, Azra Talat Sayeed from Pakistan and Geetha Fernando from Sri Lanka participated in the Platform for Collective Action Forum Terra Preta*, Rome June 1 - 4, 2008 [read more]
patches of resistance towards global resistance
derailment of WTO 6TH Ministerial Meeting
(2006-01-27)